The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure. Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in the present disclosure and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Some voltage regulators, such as integrated voltage regulators in an integrated circuit, include multiple power delivery circuits in parallel. The power delivery circuits may be switched between a charge mode, wherein an inductor of the power delivery circuit is coupled to a voltage supply to charge the inductor, and a discharge mode, wherein the inductor is coupled to a load to discharge and provide power to the load. The different power delivery circuits may be switched at different times. Accordingly, individual power delivery circuits may be referred to as a phase of the voltage regulator.
Some voltage regulators allow for phase shedding, in which one or more phases of the voltage regulator are deactivated and the remaining active phases are used to deliver power to the load. However, the number of active phases is determined based on the worst-case current draw for the load.